Whenever I travel, one of my top priorities is to seek out authentic, old world recipes specific to the region I’m visiting. Recently, in the beautiful country of Portugal, I ended up in the seaport city of Aveiro, known as the “Portuguese Venice” because of its system of canals and boats similar to Venice, Italy, my Momma’s home town.

That’s where I found the craziest looking and most delightful snack called Raivas de Aveiro. I had no idea if they were a cookie or bread; I just fell in love with their silly shapes peaking out of a cellophane bag. I’m much more curious than worried about spending money on something I know nothing about, and this time, it paid off big!

I bit into a slightly sweet, crisp butter cookie with a hint of cinnamon. One bite led to another and another. I was heading for another part of Portugal and my bag of cookies was quickly dwindling. I was told that these fun treats are specific to Aveiro so I was worried I’d never taste them again. After chatting with bakers and shop owners, I got enough information to research recipes for Raivas and got lucky with this one! Once you have the recipe, how do you turn cookie dough into long, worm-like strings? You can roll them by hand, but if you have a pasta machine, the work is a breeze. Just run the dough through the machine to make sheets, and then feed the sheets through the fettuccine roller. Once you get the strings, just bunch them up to make random shapes. They’re fun, delicious and a tasty piece of Portuguese history.